RAVE & FESTIVAL LAYERS

A festival layer is the piece you put on over everything else and take off again three times a night. It is not outerwear in the ordinary sense. Nobody buys one to stay warm walking to the car. They buy it because a desert goes cold after dark and a warehouse does not, and the layer has to work for both.

That is why open front is the default shape. Shrugs, kimonos, faux fur and open cardigans all go on and off over a halter or a bodysuit without disturbing what is underneath, and they tie round the waist when you are done with them. Anything that has to come off over your head is a different kind of purchase, and it is the one people regret at two in the morning.

The shapes that do this job, and where the rest of the outfit lives.

• Shrugs and bell-sleeve wraps: the lightest option. Sheer mesh and lace, worn for the silhouette rather than for warmth.
• Kimonos and open robes: long, loose and iridescent. They move when you do, which is most of the point of wearing one.
• Faux fur: the one that actually keeps you warm once the sun goes down, and the one everybody borrows.
• Open cardigans and sweater vests: metallic and floor-length, for a long line over shorts or a bodysuit.
• Statement jackets: moto cuts, rhinestones, sequin and fringe. The layer that is the outfit rather than an addition to it.
• Festival tops: what goes underneath. Halter, crop and bra tops, cut to be seen through an open layer.
• Bodysuits: the easiest thing to layer over, because there is no waistband to line up with anything.
• Festival and rave: the full range, if you are building an outfit rather than finishing one.